Tokyo
I attended a conference on the
relationship of Japan to Japanese-Americans. This whole relationship
began because a group of disaffected veterans of the 442nd
regiment from WWII wanted to preserve their frustration with the U.S.
Government. After forty years of frustration these men and their
allies decided to create a Japanese-American Museum in Los Angeles.
It opened in 1992 on East First Street and since then has
created an implicit demand that the Japanese government acknowledge
its existence.
Several things my beloved readers may
need to know. In the mid-1980s, I worked on the Restitution Bill to
pay a modest stipend to the surviving interned Japanese-Americans and
to acknowledge the horrible injustice done to them. The bill passed, but
the issue never got the media attention that it warranted and it
never did what I hoped it would, which was to call attention to the
unremitting Japan bashing that lasted from 1978 until it ended in
1992. The Japan bashing was run out of a Navy department office. The
annual Japan bashing began each January 1st and extended
to March 31st. The leading public figure preaching
Japanese hatred was Congressman Richard Gephardt (an unpunctured boil
who still epitomizes racist evil).
The 442nd regiment was
created from volunteers and drafted Japanese-Americans who were living in
internment camps. The 442nd unit had the highest and most
incredible fatality rate of any military unit, probably a result of
high ranking officers' anti-Japanese sentiment which sent the Japanese-American troops into
the jaws of death. The unit also had the highest rate of honors and
awards of any unit.
The parents of these servicemen, also born in America, were never given citizenship, living their entire lives as “alien enemies.” Their parents were never reimbursed for the property confiscated from them during the internment.
Those 442nd soldiers created their own museum and now are forcing Japan to acknowledge their existence.